Is it Just me, or is This Weird?

[MatthewSchenker]

Hey Everyone,

Someone sent me a link to Impress this morning, and asked me what I thought about it.  It is a bold idea, but I find it odd for some reason.  The whole thing -- how it works, the way they charge, what they emphasize, who they are appealing to, that they promise a 2-week turnaround.

What do you think: http://doyouimpress.com/

Thanks,

Matthew

[MarcC]

I was checking out the site last month. Seems cool to me. The service stands out because they are communicating great value at extremely low prices. I have colleagues who will barely build you a stock WordPress site for $5K, and there is practically zero focus on any kind of marketing or user decision-making.

Usually there's also more to the story that you can't see on the website. Examples:

• Yes, we advertise $5K / 2 weeks but most of our clients are just loading us up with ongoing work that is much more expensive. We probably couldn't take on your project.
• Yes, we advertise those things, but we recommend that you do X, which is our cool new thing, just a bit more expensive.
• OK, here is your $5K / 2 week design! It was fun to work on. The results are looking great so far! Here is a list of things we think we should help you do next. The cost is based on some multiplier of the original cost.
• Yes, we do all that, but this is kind of a side gig for us. Once it gets really serious, our prices are going to be up there with everyone else's.
• Thanks for contacting us--right now we are booked 6 months out. If you're willing to pay more, however...
• Thanks for getting in touch. For your special project we think we'd approach this as a consultancy. We think we can do X,Y, and Z for you. Let us know if you can afford a weekly rate of $X. If so, I think you'll like the results...

The value they are communicating, and their prominent voice, will probably give them the ability to pick the best from lots of different potential clients. So they can say things like the points above to people who have deep pockets and deadlines, and it works out fine.

It can be weird and depressing to see this stuff as a fellow web designer, especially if you have ever charged more than that for a site that is considerably less hip, but they must have realized that most web firms are very hesitant to write down a cost and time, especially if they do amazing work. So they stand out based on that alone. But as I said above, there is usually more to the story. They also develop proprietary widget-type stuff that is pretty neat, so it's not just great Photoshop work. There's also the concept of the "smart site" and the various qualifications you jump through as you get ready to get in touch with them. They want a specific type of person who has either already bought in or is willing to be very flexible.

Overall I think there's a lot to learn from this approach, but it can't really be taken at face value. I'd be interested to hear what they're up to right now.

[onjegolders]

I think it's interesting personally. 

I think often as web designers we like to show off our content but we struggle at pushing our own sites towards new sales, they serve simply as a reputation check.

This is fine but their approach is more like a product driven site. They're telling you step by step what you get then try and get you to signup.

An interesting one for sure.